Shadow Riders
by Villain Princess
Summary: Starting duel school with a missing brother, isn't how Ruri intended it. As she looks for her missing brother, she and her friends are met with the task of guarding the Sacred Beasts, cards that the Shadow Riders want. If they get their hands on the cards, it could mean the end of the world. Not only that, but Ruri might find more clues about her brother with them than without.


**Welcome to part 1 of 4 (5 if you count the story all 4 lead up to) of a brand new ARC-V AU! Also, Yuto might be OOC in this a little bit.**

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It's a brand new school year for the students of Heartland Clover and Spade Duel School's. But unlike the previous years the two school's will be merging together. There's a pipeline issue at the Clover branch of the Duel School and because of that, the old Heartland Tower (which is the only place big enough to hold all of them) has been renovated so old rooms can be used as dorms or classrooms, those being the main concerns as it already has a nurse's office, cafeteria, and a store to sell cards.

Taking a deep breath Ruri looks around all of her new and old classmates. As it turns out that the students of Heartland Academy are using the Spade Branch building as their school this, while the duelist take theirs. During renovations, the heads of the school boards realized that there aren't enough rooms for dorms and classrooms in the tower so Heartland Academy will have to make do as their actual school this year.

"Ruri, glad to see that you're here." Ruri turns and sees Yuto. He's a fair-skin teen with spiky-hair sweeping to the left with black in the back and purple in the front with the most striking and knowing grey eyes. She met Yuto through her brother last year when she was auditioning for Heartland's Duel School last fall. Yuto and Shay met because Yuto is a prodigy and got into the duel school a year earlier than most and was even able to take some more advanced classes than his-now-fellow second-year classmates. Such as Advanced Duel History which is how he met Shay. They were partnered up for a project and have been friends since. "Ruri?"

Hearing her name, the purple-hair girl looks at Yuto and sees the concern written all over his face. "Is everything all right?"

"Fine, I guess. I just thought that my first year of Duel School would involve Shay too."

Yuto places a hand on her shoulder and gently squeezes it in reassurance. Most people may think that a hug may be needed to show this, but Yuto isn't exactly the best with having his body language and emotions meeting up so he sticks with little gestures, not that Ruri minds. It's better than nothing, and what is happening with Shay, Ruri can use any sort of reassurance right now.

"We'll find him, and when we do he can tell us what happened and we can catch him up on everything." Yuto says, voice soft and assuring. Ruri places her hand over his and returns the smile.

"I lose again!" A voice cries out. Yuto and Ruri break their hands apart as they see two people in their yellow school uniforms that are similar to that of Heartland Academy's, but instead of different colors for different years the red are for the duelists who need a lot of improvement, yellow is for the students who have potential they just need an extra push to get there, finally the blue is for the duelists who are the best of the best (Shay's color).

"Come on Saya, you aren't that bad of a duelist, you're a yellow!" The boy with reddish-brown and some blonde tells the lavender-lilac-hair girl.

"Says you Allen, you've beat me three times in a row now. How I got into Heartland, much less as a Yellow, I will never understand." Saya replies.

"Looks like someone needs to work on some self-confidence." Ruri says as she and Yuto are near them.

"Good luck, I've been telling her that for a while now." Allen replies. "By the way, I'm Allen Kozuki and this is Saya Sasayama."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Ruri Kurosaki and this is Yuto Tenjo."

"Kurosaki? As in Shay Kurosaki and Tori Kurosaki? I hear your mom helped Yuma Tsukumo when they were about our age! Not to mention people are saying that Shay could possibly take on Kite Tenjo one day and may even beat him! And aren't you Kite's son! Someone punch me I must be dreaming!"

"Don't you mean pinch?" Yuto asks.

"No." Saya shakes her head. "Because there have been plenty of times where he's fallen asleep and I've pinched him to try and wake him up, a punch in the arm usually does it." Saya demonstrates as she lightly punches Allen on his arm to stop him from fanboying.

Allen looks at her, but concedes and goes over to her side.

"Besides," Yuto adds. "I've seen Shay duel, if he gets to duel my dad one day I'm not sure who will win. Besides that, he has to make it through my mom first." The quartet has a laugh until Headmaster Shepard comes up and makes an announcement. Everyone turns and sees him, Professor Banner, and Yusho Sakaki come up.

"Welcome all to a new duel year at Heartland's Duel School. Most of you are aware of what is happening at the Clover Branch of the school, and why we are all here, so I won't waste any time talking about it." Shepard says. "Instead I would like to welcome you all to a brand new year! And by that I mean you all will get the chance to duel one another right now, and after that the blues will go to the very top of the building for their welcome, the yellows in the middle, and the reds on the bottom. For now, have fun!"

The students cheer as everyone starts going to their friends, siblings, cousins, even people they don't know and challenging them to duels. Ruri smiles but turns away from the crowd. She stares out the window trying to figure out where her brother has gone. He and a few others disappeared at the end of last year and no one knows where to. It hurts, because Ruri knows that her brother would not just leave her like this. Something is going on and she is going to get to the bottom of it.

"Ruri," Yuto says quietly as he approaches her. "Hey, it's the first day of the new year. Stop worrying about Shay for a minute and have some fun."

"Yuto how can-"

"Shay is a strong person, wherever he is there is no doubt that he is fighting his way out and trying to find his way here. When we see him again we can get him into the hospital and examined and he can tell us where he's been. For now, I think he would want us to stop worrying and want us to enjoy some duels. Come on, how about we challenge Saya and Allen to a tag duel?"

"That sounds great." Ruri smiles as Yuto walks her back to their new friends.

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Long after everyone has been welcomed and dueled, and settled in for the night a storm comes in in the middle of the night. Everyone unaware of some birds flying in the harsh rain as six people look at the old tower is holding many of Heartland's best duelists. Soon, seven of them will be given the keys and when they are, they will be picked off one by one until all of their souls are taken, the Spirit Gates are open and the Sacred Beasts are theirs for the taking and no one can stop them.

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 **I think I might have made Yuto a little OOC but I'm exactly positive in that regard. Also, I gave out Xyz friends the Shadow Riders because when I was thinking of someone being Night Shroud I could only think of Shay (maybe Declan, but I feel like he is way more Bastion) so here we go. Then I'm going to have Society of Light for our Fusion Friends, Tron for Pendulum, and finally Arcadia for Synchro. All of these will lead up to a different ARC-V AU!**


End file.
